Meetings held in 2019

Our meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month (unless otherwise specified) at the Lake San Marcos Pavilion (1105 La Bonita Dr., San Marcos, CA 92078). Meetings feature culture classes to learn about growing orchids first hand, as well as monthly special guest speakers, who cover just about every topic imaginable on orchid culture, breeding, hybridizing, judging, conservation, travel and more.

Fred ClarkeIt is our distinct pleasure to welcome back one of our most favorite speakers, Fred Clarke. Fred will provide us with an update on his breeding efforts with Australian Dendrobiums in a talk title "Aussie Dendrobiums and Their Cultivation". Fred has been doing extensive work on improving the hybrids in this very interesting class of orchids. As several of you may know, Aussie Dends are very tough and hardy plants that do very well in our San Diego area. They are quite attractive orchids in that they are easy to grow, tolerant of heat and cold, have fragrant flowers, and re-bloom from the old bulbs!!! They thrive in frost-free areas and do well alongside Cattleyas under shade structures so they are a popular class for many of us to grow outside year round. Fred will review the species and latest developments in breeding and growing of this popular class of orchids. Moreover, he will cover the best practices for growing these remarkable plants. Fred also will be supplying this month’s opportunity table. Read more »

Two of our more experienced members, Ken Campbell and Alex Nadzan, will speak on growing orchids in a greenhouse and outdoors under shade cloth, respectively. They will share their conditions and tips for successful growing a variety of orchids under a climate controlled environment and outdoors. The presentation should be educational for both experienced and novice orchid growers alike. It is a timely topic to kick off the 2019 orchid growing season as your plants emerge from their winter resting period. The plant table this month is provided by Cal Orchid of Santa Barbara.

Ken Campbell and his pet pandaWhen Ken Campbell’s in-laws passed away about 20 years ago, Ken took over their modest orchid collection, which consisted primarily of cattleyas. Being an engineer at heart, and always willing to accept a new challenge, the first thing he decided he needed to do was to build a greenhouse... and as they say, the rest is history.

Over the years Ken’s appreciation of orchids has grown from not being able to even spell the word correctly (Ph. D. engineers are notoriously bad spellers), to being able to keep the plants alive (at least most of them), to actually getting some of them to bloom. Ken says he owes a special thanks to the many knowledgeable individuals that have over the years helped him achieve the level of success and enjoyment he finds in orchids today. Read more »

John OswaltWe are delighted to welcome John Oswalt, second VP of the SD County Orchid Society, who will speak on ‘Lessons Learned from Growing Cymbidium Orchids’. John’s talk will highlight his experiences in growing and repotting cymbidium orchids and provide useful tips to both new and experienced orchid growers. This is a very timely talk as winter and spring are the main times for cymbidium flowering and the ideal time to divide and repot them is shortly after their blooming period. This month’s plant table will be provided by Casa de las Orquideas.

John Oswalt began growing orchids over 40 years ago when he was in high school. After college, he put this hobby on hold due to a demanding career and corporate relocations. After John retired in 2012, he embraced his hobby again in a big way. John grew a collection of orchids in Atlantic Beach, Florida and then moved his collection to San Diego in 2016. John was a member of the Jacksonville Orchid Society and now serves as second Vice President of the San Diego County Orchid Society. John has two greenhouses that are temperature and humidity-controlled year-round. He also has a large outdoor shade area. John has a broad collection of orchids, but particularly enjoys growing Cattleya Alliance and Cymbidium orchids. He has had good success with his plants and has many practical lessons to share.

This month’s opportunity table will be provided by Casa de las Orquideas.

Brandon TamIt is our distinct pleasure to welcome back Brandon Tam as our first speaker of 2019. Brandon will talk to us on "Wild Orchids of Ecuador" which resulted from a trip he took in May, 2017 that included Harold Koopowitz and others on a trek in Ecuador led by Pepe Portilla (President of Ecuagenera), where the group saw many wild orchids and focused on the study of Selenipedium aequinoctiale. Brandon’s presentation is a multimedia talk that includes both photos and videos of his trip highlighting the diversity of orchids found in Ecuador as well as the interesting local cuisine and a visit to the expansive nurseries of Eucagenera, which supplies thousands of orchids to countries around the world. This is a very exciting and educational presentation not to be missed. Alex has seen the talk twice and it is, in his opinion, one of the best travel orchid talks he has seen over the years.

Brandon is passionate about his career as the Orchid Collection Specialist at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. He is a dedicated supporter of our orchid societies and has hosted several of our San Diego societies trips to the Huntington Library to view their extensive orchid collection. Read more »